SHAKESPEARE

AND

ASTROLOGY
From a Student's Point of View

By

WILLIAM WILSON

BOSTON
OCCULT PUBLISHING CO.
204 Dartmouth St.
CO '
 ^
A?
SHAKESPEARE AND ASTROLOGY.*

If the prognostications of the Science of Planetary Influ-

ence as to its own future are to be considered worthy of atten-
tion, we may regard ourselves as living on the eve of an interest-
ing era at the present time. Whether Astrology and its presages
be or be not adapted to the use of intelligent people is a ques-
tion on which even they agree to differ we all have what Arte-
;

mus Ward used to call our idiot syncrasies many there are who ;

hold that the question never attained the dignity of being one ;

probably the position of those alone is safe who have learned to

reserve their judgment until that which forms the basis of so
much adverse criticism is removed, namely, a lack of acquaint-
ance with the subject.
Of one thing we on this planet may rest assured if the ;

fortress ofour reason is not yet ready to capitulate to anything

that comes with such queer credentials, there is at least consid-
erable knocking at the gate going on at present. The signs in-
deed are plentiful that this aged, once esteemed, now jeered at
science occupies not only wider ground today than it has yet
done in our modern life, but that public interest in it is rapidly
on the increase. Astronomers are kept busy preparing Ephemer-
ides of the Planets Places from year to year there are well estab-
' ;

lished publications of the kind public library authorities see

;

fit, not only to inlay their vestibules with the Zodiacal Signs,
but also to include a considerable amount of the literature on
the subject in their lists teachers, more or less qualified, there
;

are in plenty serious students abound in short, it would seem

; :

that Astrology is now ready for that vigorous opposition and

misrepresentation which is always at hand when a great ques-
tion is ripening for consideration.
As far as its message is concerned, we that have free souls
ittouches us not our withers are not in danger
: we need not ;

hesitate to hear it, tersely expressed as it has been by a recent

writer. "During the coming century," says this gentleman,
"while the Sun, in the greater cycle, progresses through the
Zodiacal Sign Aquarius, Astrology is destined to become the re-
ligion of our race.
'
' The prognostication is at least sufficiently

^Copyright 1903 by William Wilson.

distintft, whatever else may be said about it. In olden times the
Oracles were careful ;
they spoke in generalities we of today
;

have changed all that.

Yet the fact remains that Astrology is pressing itself upon
the world and is practically demanding to be examined. A re-
ligion it mayor may not be; meanwhile, however, it comes
.

with an explanation of much that we see in the conduct of the

universe which, to most of us, is new we hear the word "Sci-
;

ence" gravety used in connection with a mysterious something

which we have hitherto held to be no more definable and trust-
worthy than Gypsy (that is, Egyptian) fortune-telling and our ;

first feeling is a very curious one. It almost amounts to scare.

We are tempted to peep into the temple, the outer doors of which
are open, for something says there is a truth, away far back,
within. At the same time we are uncomfortably conscious that,
by so doing, we subject ourselves to the ridicule of the multi-
tude outside, of our friends, and possibly even of ourselves, if
we should, emerge from this novel condition of seeing as we
never saw before. We therefore fall back on the healthy instinct
of our childhood, when we were first confronted with things
that touched us strangely, and seek to find out what our fathers
thought about them.
As a contribution to this harmless entertainment, it will,
not be unprofitable to listen to one whose identity may be doubt-
ful, but of whose importance there never has been a question,

the writer of the plays of Shakespeare. Of the usefulness of

a Science which has played such an enormous part in the his-
tory of the world, which had made its mark on nations long be-
forePtolemy existed, and of which, in their time, men of the
acuteness of Addison and Swift thought it well to make so many
exhibitions of their ignorance, nothing need be said. The pur-
pose of this paper is attained if if be established that the great
English playwright not only was interested in Zodiacal and
Planetary questions, but seemed to have found time, at a period
when study must have been hampered by the absence of astro-
nomic material, to devote a very considerable portion of his
attention to the gaining of knowledge on the subject. The
main objection' to the enquiry may be at once conceded ; it in-
creases the already large amount of irresponsible talk about
him ; but the the disintegrating influence of
evil ceases there ;

the planets, be a factor on earth at all, is as powerful on

if it

books and pamphlets as it is on human beings, everything must

 ' " ——

sooner or later succumb to it as for the right or wrong of

;

spending time in such a way, there is nothing good or bad but

thinking makes it so. We may know as little of the matter as
the philanthropist does of the working classes and yet admit that
there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our phi-
losophy. Shakespeare was a poet, and poetry makes its impress
by reason of an occult something that lies behind it but the ;

great poets are not content to trust to inspirations they busy

;

themsel ves as well with what is going on around them and those;

are well equipped indeed who have nothing from careful-

to learn
ly observing the directions in which their study tends to move.
That there was abundant public interest in Shakespeare's
time in the subject of the so-called stargazing, to which so many
references are found in the poets of the period, Spencer, Chaucer,
Milton, as well as the minor writers, is evident in the third
scene of the 5th Act of "Lear," where the aged king comments
on the habit of the day. "We take upon us" he says, "the
mystery of things, as if we were God's spies. And we wear
out in a wall 'd prison pacts and sects of great ones that ebb
and flow by the moon." In Act 1, Sc. 2, however, Gloster is
made to insist that these "late eclipses in the sun and moon
portend no good to us." Shakespeare, never didactic, gives to
Edmund the following pregnant answer :

"This isthe excellent foppery of the world, that, when we

are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behavior) we
make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon and stars as if ;

we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion,

knaves, thieves and treachers by spherical predominance, drunk-
ards, liarsand adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetar}-
influence, and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on ;

an admirable evasion of a man to lay his goatish disposition to

the charge of a star.'

Then conies an illustration of a Nativity which would seem

to have been frequent in the poet's time, and he closes with
what, no doubt, was a sentiment that often found its way into
the daily conversation of those about him:
''Edmund. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read
the other day what should follow these eclipses.
Edgar. Do you busy yourself with that ?
Edmund. I promise you the effects he writes of succeed
unhappily.
Here it is the author himself who is "sectary astronomical"
 — — " —

and concerned with the development of a character under cer-

tain wellknown astrological conditions. This habit of working
with Zodiacal types appeared to grow as years went on. There
is a beautiful instance of it in one of his later plays. In the
2nd. Scene of the 1st. Act of "Twelfth Night" Sir Toby says,
in reply to Andrew's expressed yearning to "set about some
revels "
;

"What else shall we do? Were we not born

under Taurus ?
Sir And. Taurus ? That 's sides and heart.
Sir Toby. No, sir, it's legs and thighs."
To the uninformed reader such words are meaningless.
Singer explains them by saying that the errors were probably
intentional; but Andrew's clearly was not, while Toby's as
surely was the truth being that Shakespeare, himself a Taurus
;

man, was treating at the time the very best of his Taurian
characters (FalstafF and Bottom not forgotten) and Toby was ;

not the man to let his friend Capricorn's misstatement pass

without rallying him with another. Why he chose that par-
ticular one is apparent from the context. Toby had the charac-
teristic Taurian interest in physique, legs had special fascination
for him (witness, in a later scene, his remarks on these essentials
in the personality of Viola) ; Andrew's shanks in particular
took his fancy :

"I did think" says he, "by the excellent constitution of thy
leg that it was formed under the star of a galliard.
"Aye" says Andrew succumbing to the flattery " 'tis 7
,

strong and it does indifferent well in a flame coloured

stock."
"What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight?" asks Toby,
the exquisite, the inimitable.
"Faith" says the victim, "I can cut a caper." And one
can hear the Taurian chuckle and the basso comment, sotto
voce :«— "And I can cut the mutton to't.
"

In the letter to Malvolio, in the composition of which Toby

must have had. a hand, (Act 2, Sc. 5) we have the words :

"In my stars I am above thee ;

but be not afraid of greatness." •

where the reference clearly is to Jupiter near Midheaven in the

tenth or eleventh "house" as opposed to Jupiter beneath the
earth at time of birth. This is shown by the subsequent
 " —"

"Jove and my stare be praised; Jove, I thank thee; I

will smile, do everything that thou wilt have me

I will ;

wherein is expressed the delight of the oppressed Saturnian at

finding himself in the Benefic's favour after all he will even ;

forego the one privilege that was afforded him at birth, his rue-
ful countenance there is to be no holding back
; "up to this, ;

he says, "I had thought } our gracious benefits rather grudg-

r

ingly bestowed, but there is no mistake about it now, here is

munificence indeed abject slavery is the very least that can be
;

offered in return do with me what you will."

; That Shakes-
peare was aware of the qualities attributed to Jupiter is evident
from this, as well as from Act 3, Sc. 1, where Viola saj-s to the
—
Clown: "Hold, here's expenses for thee, "an, astrologically
speaking, eminently Jovial impulse which elicits the response :

"Now Jove, in his next commodity of hair, send thee a beard,"

from the observant Clown, who knew he was dealing with
a Jupiterian and recognised the influence of the planet in
her behaviour. The successor to that admirable Viola (and
Sagittarian) Miss Ellen Terry will therefore (if Astrology's predic-
tion about itself be true) not require to be informed that Shakes-
peare saw his Viola with blonde or light brown hair, she being
a Sagittarian, not only in her relations to others, but in her own
career throughout the play. No one who has interested himself
in this phase of the subject can fail to be impressed with the
grasp of it possessed by Shakespeare. There is scarcely an
utterance in the play that is not significant.
As an illustration of the consistent way in which he worked,
it is worth}' of note that Viola's twin has similar characteris-

tics ;he also is under the Lord of Sagittarius, although he sa3 s, T

in Act 2, Sc. 1 :

"My Myself and

stars shine darkly o'er me.
sisterboth born in an hour. If the heavens
had been pleased, would we had so ended."
This however was a passing shadow the fortunate Sagit-;

tarian is maintained throughout the comedy; neither suffers want

at any time even the shipwrecked Viola is treated with consist-

;

ent poetic license, and seems to have preserved, not only her
presence of mind, but her gold as well, at a tjme when the loss
of both would have been excusable. As for the brother, her
twin, whose career is similar to her own, he also is within the
text book limits for, so soon as he meets a danger, in the form
;

of a tussle with the fighter par excellence, Sir Tob}- Taurus, a

planetary confederate appears and rescues him. Viola, it will
be remembered, has also an experience of the kind. It is diffi-
cult to imagine that anyone possessed of the most rudimentary
acquaintance with the subject could fail to enjoy here the attrac-
tive combination of art and science. To suppose it the result
of chance would surely involve an effort out of proportion to
the necessities of the case. Happy -go-luckyism may be
a
genial guide at times, but sooner or later sends its victim it

sprawling. It is easier to suppose that Shakespeare accepted

the theory of Zodiacal Influence, and set himself to portray

the various types accordingly as Masson has said, whatever
;

he can be found to have done there is considerable likelihood

that he knew he was doing.
Nor, when treating the larger, does he neglect the smaller
planets. We have in the 4th. Scene of Act I, the clown saying:-
Now Mercury endow thee with leasing (lying)."
'

an instance as significant as that of the Mercury, badly aspected,

in "Winter's Tale", our disreputable friend Autolycus ;

"Who, being as I am, littered under Mercury, was

likewise a .snapper up of ill-considered trifles,"

a subtle definitionwhen the derivation of the word "consider"

is borne in mind. There, of course, is no suggestion here of
the Argonaut precursor of this Autolycus but, if there were,
, ;

it would only affect the range, not the relevance of the enquiry

which naturally occurs as god and

to the origin of the thievish
name. This would
his relationship with the planet that bears his
leave untouched the question of how such words as consider,
jovial, Saturnine, Martial, Mercurial, contemplate, desire, ill-star-
red, desideratum, lunatic, lunes, moon-struck, moony and others
have found their way into Shakespeare's plenteous vocabulary,
or howthe days of the week, Sun-da}', Moon-day, Mar-di, Mer-
cre-di,Thor or Jupiter's day, Freia or Venus' day and Saturn or
Satur's day had their meaning for him if their astrological par-
entage be set aside. As for the Moon's day, his references to it
are too numerous for quotation. "Midsummer Night's Dream"
isextended over a period of four nights in order to satisfy the
duke concerning it. The play opens with a statement of his
views :
—
"Theseus. Now, Fair Hippolyta our nuptial hour draws
x
on apace. Four happy days bring in another
moon.
 —

Hippol. Four days will quickly dream away the time

and then the moon, like a silver bow now bent
heaven, shall behold the night of our solemni-
ties."
At a later time Hermia is told to "take time to pause, and,
by the next new moon, the sealing day betwixt my love and
me, prepare to wed Demetrius", which, if it does not establish
the writer's own conviction that there is, in Solomon's words, a
time for everything, at least completes the case for his Duke of
Athens.
Interesting it is throughout this play, as well as
to note
that of the "Tempest", how
well the poet knew when to have
done with Zodiacs and Right Ascensions, how he subdues his
science, so prominent at other times, and allows the stars to play
their part as an attractive background to his picture. Apos-
trophes such as those of Oberon to the planet Venus are common ;

the witchery of night is ever present when the stars are in

;

view they fulfil all that is needed of them anything that would;

divert attention from their beauty is carefully withheld. Only

once in the "Tempest", in Act 1, Sc. 2, does Prospero allow
the tools with which he works to show themselves :

"I find" he says, "my Zenith doth depend upon a most

auspicious star, whose influence, if now I court not,
but omit, my fortunes will ever after droop."
This at once suggests the inner meaning of "there is a tide
in the affairs ofmen ;" but Prospero is Ariel's master (the im-
pulsive Ariel, born under Aries) and, as such, is supreme in
forces which lie beyond the critic's pale he is magician as well
;

as student of Astrology, and so is in the convenient position of

being able to do precisely as he wills.
In Act 1, Sc. 2, of "Winter's Tale" Polixenes speaks of
"nine changes of the watery moon" which had transpired since
he left his throne Leontes, in the same scene, makes a charac-
;

istic allusion to a planet, the nature of which he no doubt

understood, for he himself was subject to it and, later, Camillo ;

says, at a crisis in his life :—

"Happy star, reign now
here comes Bohemia."
;

Hermione complains, in the third scene of the second act,

that "some ill planet reigns", and, in the third act speaks of
her infant, "starred unluckily" and from her "breast haled out
to murder;" as for the Oracle business in Act 3, it is known, if
 —

not always respected, by every student of Astrology though ;

here again the artist hand is strong the Oracle is not loqua- ;

cious, he is carefull}' non-committal, he does not interrupt the

action by provoking wonder as to how he got his mysterious
information.
If Malone was justified in maintaining that Shakespeare
did not write the first part of "Henry VI" and that too especi-
ally on account of allusions thereiu contained, it is noteworthy
•that the planetary references were not included. They were
probably common to all writing at the time. Bedford begins at
the very outset :

"Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night,

Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad, revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry's death."
Shortly afterwards he invokes the spirit of the king to "combat
with, ad verse planets in the heavens" (compare "the stars in
their courses fought against Sisera"), his whole attitude in the
scene being an impressive one in this respect. The second
scene affords an opportunity to note the progress made by
Astronomy since Shakespeare's time though it may be doubted ;

whether even now we have all the inforrriation possessed by the

ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans; Joseph's reading of Pharoah's
dream, for instance, being evidently based on the movements of
Uranus, which we regard as discovered little more than a century
ago. "Mars" says Charles, "his true moving, even as in the
heavens, so in the earth, to this day is not known. Late did he
shine upon the English side now we are victors, upon us he
;

smiles." That is to say, we are not certain either as to his

precise movement in the heavens, or to the effect he has upon the
earth.
Act IV., Sc. 5 of the same play introduces further evidence
of the care with which the author (or his imitator) worked out
such matters to their logical conclusion. Talbot cries to his
son :— "I did send for thee to tutor thee but, oh malignant and ;

ill-boding stars, now thou art come to the feast of death, a ter-
rible and unavoided danger. The commentators read this as
'
'

meaning unavoidable but unavoided is clearly meant that is,

; ;

astrologically speaking, a danger to which you are liable and

which you have made 'no effort to avoid. Talbot speaks as if
Suddenly impressed by a planetary call to aid his son but the ;
 — — "

aspect was not strong enough to be of service. The lad

refuses
to be moved the father thereupon sees the inevitable and
;
con-
cludes by saying :-"Then here I take my
leave of thee fair son,
born to eclipse thy life this afternoon; come, side by
side togeth-
er. " The astro-logical crisis occurs in the seventh
scene.
Julia, in Act 2, Sc. 7 of the "Two Gentlemen
of Verona,"
says that "truer stars did govern Proteus' breath",
and, in the
"Merry Wives" is recorded, in reply to an Arien outburst
on the
part of Pym, Pistol's conviction that he is
"the very Mars of
malcontents." Mars, it will be remembered, is the ruler
of the
Zodiacal sign of Aries.
In the third scene of the opening Act of "Much Ado" we
have Don John saying :

"I wonder that thou, being (as thou say'st thou

art)born under Saturn, goest about to apply a
moral medicine to a mortifying mischief.
Don
John, himself an ill-aspected Saturn man, naturally
objected to his ruling planet being accused of harbouring
good
intentions, even though of fruitless kind. To recur, however,
to Mars, there is in "All 's Well" some entertaining treatment,'
Helena showing herself to be quite a skilled practitioner. In
Act 1, Sc. 1, she says ;— "It were all one that I should love a
bright particular star and think to wed it", the fuller meaning
appearing later when she speaks of we "the poorer born, whose
baser stars do shut us up in wishes", while at the close of the
scene, there is the following :

"Hel. Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable

star.
Par. Under Mars I.

Hel. I especially think under Mars.

Par. Why under Mars?
Hel. The wars have so kept you under that you must
needs be born under Mars.
Par. When he was predominant ?

Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather."

This entire Act being one of its author's most attractive
Court studies, which in "Hamlet" came to such perfection, Hel-
ena's charitable construction of Mars is more readily accepted,
He is here found in full knowledge of the importance of the
retrogression of a planet, which might be suggested as having
been in his mind when he causes the King in "Hamlet" to
 — —

10

say :
—
"It is most retrograde to our desire. " The retrogression
of a planet was and is understood to be oppressive in effect.
In "Timon of Athens" and "As you like it" little use is
made of this material, for obvious artistic reasons ; the love
story would have lost romance, the tragedy would have failed
in its appeal. On the other hand there are numerous allusions
in "Love's Labor Lost, " in particular to the influence of the
moon, while purely astronomical talk very frequent, such as
is

that of the Bear being "over the new chimney and

yet our
horse is not yet packed, " (time is flying, in other words) which
appears in Act 2, Sc. 1 of "Henry IV." The Bastard cries
despairingly in "King John," (Act 5, Sc. 6) "Now you stars :
—
that move
your right spheres, where be your powers?" In
in
"Richard II." (Act 3, Sc. 4) and in the "Taming of the Shrew"
(Act 4, Sc. 5) there are also exclamations similar in kind.

In the great classic play the Sooth or Truth Sayer warns

Caesar to "beware the Ides of March" and is represented
throughout as being a personage who influenced his hearers, the
higher class of them especially. In the opening of Act 3 the
.

"sectary astronomical" appears again, when Caesar says :

"But I am constant as the Northern star, of whose true

and lasting quality there is no fellow in the firmament;"
talk of the day, no doubt, but with the weight of astronomy
behind it. Nor is he neglectful of its possibilities in other
ways; like his own William, he has "a pretty wit" at times,
though it be caviare to the general witness 'Saturn and Ven-
;
'

us" in Act 2, Sc. 4 of the second part of "Henry IV." when Hal
and Poins enter from behind. To add to this there is the pas-
sage in Act 2 of "Troilus:"
"And fly like chi'dden Mercury from
Jove, or like a star disorb'd;'*
which shows that years of study had made the author so famil-
iar with the properties of the conjunctions that he could toy
with ihem correctly, had taught him also the relative speed of
planets and the importance of the orbs that is, the radius in ;

which a planet is effective, as to which there are still discussions

to be heard.
To the. casual reader such quotations, shorn of the context
and clubbed together in one collection, may appear of little
moment; but, even as they are, the deduction is unavoidable that
devotion to a science is necessary before it can be handled with
 — ' —

11

such genial freedom and at the same time never failing relevance
and accuracy.
Dryden well said that Shakespeare is often flat and even
insipid, that his comic wit is frequently of the poorest, and his
serious swelling degenerates sometimes into bombast but, he ;

finely added 'he

always great when some great occasion is
'
is

presented to him no man can say he ever had a fit subject and
;

did not rise to meet it. " We have only to recall the knocking
at the gate in "Macbeth," the hot air of the Verona streets in
4
'Romeo, the instant arrestment of attention by the opening
'

'

scene in "Hamlet," Othello's last words and Cassio's comment

on them, to be once again impressed by the truth of this. Yet in
nothing was he greater than in his control of means there can be ;

doubt that planetary influence was something more to him

little

than literary garnish, yet it is never used with faddishness,

never when it can be said to be out of place and disturbing to
the tenor of the scene. With the exception of the significant
foreboding at the end of Act 1, Sc. 4 there is no word of it in
"Romeo and Juliet" until the tragic crescendo commences and
the lover hears the news of Juliet's death. There the unerring
dramatist strikes a chord :

'
'Is it even so ? " says Romeo ; "then I defy you, stars. '

Still the climax is yet to come and his words, later, in the
—
.

tomb "Here will I

:
set up my
everlasting rest and shake the
yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh, " pre-
pares us for the end. If the writers of today had even a glim-
mering such instinct for the dramatic, we might leave our
of
theatres with less of melanchoty than we do.

The "Othello" gives a similar illustration

final scene in :

"It is the cause, my soul.. Let me not name

the cause, it is

it to you, ye chaste stars. * * * Oh heavy hour, methinks

it should be now a huge eclipse of sun and moon but, oh ;

vain boast, who can control his fate ? Be not afraid, here is
our journe} 's end. Oh, ill-starr'd wench."
T

Strongest, perhaps, is the poetic expression of his deduc-

tion from it all, in the sonnets, particularly the 14th, 15th, 25th,
and 29th, of which the second in order is quoted in conclusion :-

"When I consider everything that grows,

Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge state presenteth naught but shows,
 12

Whereon the stars in secret influence comment,

When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the selfsame sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height increase,
And wear their brave state out of memory,
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay,
Setsyou most rich in youth before my sight,
And, all in war with time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new."
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